In-house or outsourced IT support: which is better for your business?

Need IT support for your business? Can’t decide between hiring an in-house manager or an external support partner?

Read on, learn the advantages of each, and you'll be able to make the right decision between in-house or outsourced IT support that suits your small business needs.

In-house

Specialised knowledge. Every business’s IT setup has its own quirks. In-house teams work with these quirks every day, they know how to deal with common problems quickly and they can easily keep tabs on exactly what IT problems their colleagues are facing.

A door to knock on. When you have an internal IT person, your colleagues know they have someone to talk to when their desktop crashes. It takes trust to outsource your problems to IT support, and some teams love having a point of contact they know personally.

Outsourced

Wider knowledge base. The best outsourced IT support teams know business technology inside and out. By trusting your IT to an outside firm, you trust it to (what should be) a larger, well-trained, more experienced team.

Always available. No matter how reliable your in-house team are, they will still need occasional sick days and holidays. Outsourced firms have dedicated teams and make sure they can always offer support during the hours you pay for (including 24/7).

Cheaper. In-house teams simply can’t compete with outsourced teams on price. Once you take into account salary and general employee costs, a two-person IT team will cost your business upwards of £50,000 per year, and that’s before you consider training costs. Outsourced IT support services vary in price and quality, and that price will also depend on how many users you have and how complex your needs are, but a 10 person business should expect to pay no more than around £500 per month.

The best of both worlds

At Pensar, we provide outsourced IT support to businesses like yours, but we recognise the benefits a small internal team can bring. That’s why all of our clients have access to their own dedicated engineer who they can get to know and trust personally and who can get familiar with their individual IT setup.

We also know that businesses need far more than just basic IT support. We work with our clients, not as an ‘outsourced IT support supplier’, but as a business technology partner. Yes we keep your Wi-Fi running and your software up-to-date, but we also take a pro-active role in our clients' businesses, guiding them through each new business development they face just as a great IT manager or CIO would do.

Ultimately, the question isn't whether in-house or outsourced IT support is better for your business; it’s whether an in-house team can offer the same value and support as the right outsourced IT partner can.